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Blizzard offers three of its earliest games for free

Download three classic Blizzard games free of charge.

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Three years before it would become known as Blizzard Entertainment, the company now famous for creating the Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft series was making games as Silicon & Synapse. Three of the games from Blizzard's early years--The Lost Vikings, Rock N' Roll Racing, and Blackthorne--can now be yours for free.

As discovered by BlizzPro, Battle.net members who check out the list of games associated with their accounts will find all three now listed under the "Classic Games" section that is home to titles like StarCraft and Diablo II. Even without a Battle.net account, they can be downloaded by going here. All three are available for download on Windows computers; Blackthorne is the only one also available for Mac users.

It would appear this promotion is intended for gamers in the United States (though exactly why these games are suddenly free is unclear, as Blizzard has made no announcements). However, gamers from outside the U.S. can get around this restriction, as BlizzPro notes you can manually change your region at the very bottom of the page--the one you want is "Americas - English (US)."

Both The Lost Vikings and Blackthorne are single-player 2D platformers, the former of which incorporates puzzles. Rock N' Roll Racing, as you might imagine given the name, is a combat racing game. All three were released on computers as well as consoles, and were eventually brought to Game Boy Advance under the Blizzard Classic Arcade label.

Have you ever had the chance to play any of these games, or will this be your first opportunity to try them out for yourself? Let us know what you think of them in the comments below.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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Avatar image for chippiez
Chippiez

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Rock n Roll Racing was awesome. I loved racing to Sabbath's Paranoid.

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deactivated-5ff356badfb2d

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they ruined rock n roll racing without classic music. and its not all the tracks. why not give us the full game?

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Avatar image for meatz666
meatz666

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Check the readme. It's the Lite version. It sucks.

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StickyJr1

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Now the only unavailable Blizzard game (save from buying it on eBay) is the original Diablo. I'm glad I kept my copy.

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Stinger78

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I just played this version of Rock N Roll Racing - chose Rookie class - raced 3 races (took 1st each time) and was taken back to the start screen.

No 'Rock N Roll" music, no choice of vehicle, generic repetitive midi music playing - the same music all 3 races.

Half of the fun of RNR Racing is missing from this version.

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ArchoNils2

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I loved to play lost vikings on my ... genesis I guess? Not sure which system it was on, but I loved it ^^

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Avatar image for PrpleTrtleBuBum
PrpleTrtleBuBum

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Wait what Blizzard did those games. I thought they only made crappy games

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joSplicer

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<< LINK REMOVED >> *slow clap*

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Ranger-X

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Never played any of these but recently watched the Blackthorne 32x intro. Damn good intro! reminds of the Diablo days with the cinematics

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B1ackf0x

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lol still got a working copy of RnR

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bafalcon

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This version or RnR racing is pathetic, I will stick to emulators to play this when I feel like playing it


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drumjod

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Agreed. It's odd that Blizzard included ZSnes files with it but removed all of ZSnes's features like gamepad support...

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Avatar image for Warlord_Irochi
Warlord_Irochi

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And my saturday went fro "Good" to "Wonderful"

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digishah

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Rock and Roll Racing!!

Whatever happened to you Blizzard?

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northcrystal

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R&R Racing was one of my favourite racers of all time. And Lost Vikings was awesome too.

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Avatar image for Prostakma
Prostakma

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Let the carnage begins!

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Brakkyn

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I played The Lost Vikings and Blackthorne on the Super NES back in The Day.

Memories...

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Lionheart8472

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Blackthorne has been a free download for a long time on their site. The other games though that's cool.

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Avatar image for Truth_Hurts_U
Truth_Hurts_U

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Thanks for the heads up. Loved Blackthorne back in the day.

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javalino

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rock n roll racing is good but pretty hard !!!

the others are great games , classics !!!

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Avatar image for deactivated-591a658d5ed11
deactivated-591a658d5ed11

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They should put these on the Wii U VC or Xbox Arcade or PSN for $4.99 or $7.99 !

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falcon11

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I downloaded rocn n roll racing as I loved that game back in the day. This version did not have the same music as the gen and snes games, the is no character choice or vehicle customization in this one. I dont know why. It sucks. :(

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Kiyosuyo

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Thanks for letting me know. I'm not interested in a bastardization of the original classic.

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abcdefgabcdefgz

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<< LINK REMOVED >> No point in playing it without that

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DrKill09

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Yeah, disappointed as hell. The SNES and Genesis version were awsome!


This version of Blackthorne is good, though.


Although I still like the 32X version best.

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bafalcon

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >>Didn't even know it was in 32x

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adders99

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<< LINK REMOVED >> What!? all of that stuff is what made the original so good!!!

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Grenadehh

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Lost Vikings is the only one really worth picking up butthis is cool.

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Arach666

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Come on now,Blackthorne is fantastic!

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DrKill09

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Agreed. Blackthorne was awsome!


There just aren't enough games like that anymore. The newest example is Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken.


Another World, Oddworld, Heart of Darkness, Flashback... I love games like that!

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drumjod

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I've heard great things about Rock N' Roll Racing. Looks like this will be my first chance to play it.

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Avatar image for bafalcon
bafalcon

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<< LINK REMOVED >> If you want to play the way it is suppose to be played, do not play this one

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drumjod

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> I just tried and see there is no gamepad support. Looks like I'm better off just downloading the Rom.


It's strange that Blizzard included ZSnes files but removed all of the features...

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Avatar image for BuBsay
BuBsay

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The Lost Vikings was one of my favorite games on the SNES, I'm getting that immediately.

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abcdefgabcdefgz

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Three of my favorite games. too bad no sequels.

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Arach666

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Lost Vikings had a sequel and a sort of enhanced 32 bit edition.

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Avatar image for Kiyosuyo
Kiyosuyo

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Rip....is in another time zone!

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swagtile

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<< LINK REMOVED >> I see what you did there!

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YearoftheSnake5

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I remember playing Rock N' Roll Racing with my dad on the SNES all them years ago. Good times. I still have the cart.

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TheLeftHandDoom

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Snake jams into First!!

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MJ12-Conspiracy

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I played Blackthorn......well a little of it, epic game very similar to Flashback in it's gameplay but Blackthorn was more deliberate....wasn't as fast paced as Flashback....

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santinegrete

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Played Rock n' roll racing and Starcraft. Second one is in my top 5 best games ever, first one is bested by Pro AM championship from RARE Ltd.

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RossRichard

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Spent a LOT of time on Rock N Roll Racing back in the SNES days. Wonder if they still have the music, or if it is just generic tunes now.

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bafalcon

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Generic crap


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Fiendvinny

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Rock'n roll racing is the tits!

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